No Simplification

January 16, 1986

WHAT STARTED as tax simplification has been renamed tax reform. Tax accountants agree that the bill of more than a thousand pages does not provide simplification.

Tax reform in the past has resulted in tax increases, and ultimately this will be the case with the newest one. How can many of the low-wage earners be removed from the tax rolls, wealthy wage earners reduced to 38 percent tax (down from 70 percent just a few years ago) and the rest of us supposedly pay less?

If the answer is that there will be an increased tax on business, I think I know who pays its taxes. Any tax increase for business will be passed along to us. I don't think many multimillion-dollar salaries will be cut to pay increased corporate taxes.

Loss of investment credit and an increase in long-term capital gain tax will have an adverse effect on investment and business expansion.

Is this shuffle in our best interests or is it a cover to reduce the maximum tax rate for big-wage earners?